• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FairMormon

Save the date! 2019 FairMormon Conference August 7-9
(You can still read 2018 talks or watch streaming.)

  • Find Answers
  • Blog
  • Media & Apps
  • Conference
  • Bookstore
  • Archive
  • About
  • Get Involved
  • Search

Did Moses Write the Book of Genesis? (Old Testament Gospel Doctrine 3B)

January 19, 2018 by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775-1851: Light and Color: The Morning After the Deluge (Goethe’s Theory) — Moses Writing the Book of Genesis, 1843

 An Old Testament KnoWhy for Gospel Doctrine Lesson 3B: The Creation (Moses 1:27-42; 2-3) (JBOTL03B), 11 January 2018

Question: LDS teachings and scripture clearly imply that Moses learned of the Creation and the Fall in vision and was told to write what he saw. However, most modern scholars find evidence that the book of Genesis as we have it today was produced at a much later date than Moses could have lived. Can these views be reconciled?

Summary: Scholars have assembled impressive evidence that the first five books of the Bible were compiled in their current form at a relatively late date from multiple, overlapping sources of varying perspectives — and almost certainly with differing degrees of inspiration. This idea should not trouble believing readers of the Book of Mormon, who know that inspired editors wove separate, overlapping records covering many hundreds of years into a single work of scripture. In addition, the idea that Moses may not have written all that is attributed to him firsthand is not incompatible with the belief that he, along with other major Old Testament figures, were actual historical persons. Many of the Bible’s sources may go back to authentic traditions (whether oral or written) that are associated with figures such as Moses as authorities, even if they were not the direct authors. As a further witness of the reality of these figures, we have accounts of the Prophet having seen many of them personally. Moreover, we have the same witness within the Joseph Smith’s Bible translation efforts, the Book of Mormon, the book of Abraham, and several revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants. We are fortunate both to know that these lengthy additions to the record of the Old Testament are authentic reports of events originally experienced by ancient prophets and that they were also directly translated in our day by a modern prophet.

The full article may be found at the Interpreter Foundation website: KnoWhy OTL03B — Did Moses Write the Book of Genesis?

Filed Under: Bible, Book of Mormon, Book of Moses, Joseph Smith, LDS History, LDS Scriptures, Lesson Aids, Questions Tagged With: Bible Authorship, Documentary Hypothesis, Gospel Doctrine: Old Testament, Historicity, Joseph Smith Translation, Moses

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Karen says

    January 21, 2018 at 12:10 am

    So, did he record the events he saw?

  2. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw says

    January 21, 2018 at 7:43 am

    Thanks for your question, Karen. It would be very difficult to know, short of revelation, whether Moses captured everything in Moses 1 the five books attributed to him in writing or if all or part of it were transmitted orally in the beginning.

    Interestingly, Moses 1:42 reads: “These words were spoken unto Moses in the mount … And now they are spoken unto you.” Does this verse imply that the vision of Moses was only spoken and not written down at the time? Maybe, but I’m not sure. Elsewhere scripture mentions experiences and words that were too sacred to be written.

  3. Andrew Carvalho says

    January 22, 2018 at 6:34 am

    Moses was instructed to write these things
    There were no computers back then to save a document so later editions would have came from other authors recalling original text

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Blog

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


RSS-Icon RSS Feed (all posts)

Subscribe to Podcast

Podcast icon
Subscribe to podcast in iTunes
Subscribe to podcast elsewhere
Listen with FairMormon app
Android app on Google Play

Pages

  • Blog Guidelines

FairMormon Latest

  • “The Laborers Are Few” (The Church in the DR Congo: A Personal Perspective, Part 11)
  • FairMormon Conference Podcast #23 – Richard Lloyd Anderson, “Explaining Away the Book of Mormon Witnesses”
  • Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone’s Experience with the Scriptures and the Savior
  • Church Developments and Their Timescales
  • FairMormon Conference Podcast #22 – Daniel Peterson, “Apologetics: What, Why, and How”

Blog Categories

Recent Comments

  • Jack Berg on Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone’s Experience with the Scriptures and the Savior
  • Dennis Horne on Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone’s Experience with the Scriptures and the Savior
  • Jack Berg on Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone’s Experience with the Scriptures and the Savior
  • Hogarth on Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone’s Experience with the Scriptures and the Savior
  • Chrys Reynolds on FairMormon Questions: First Presidency Statement on Temples

Archives

Footer

FairMormon Logo

FairMormon is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of LDS doctrine, belief and practice.

Quick Links

  • About FairMormon
  • Bookstore
  • Contact Us
  • Get Involved
  • Sign Up for Updates

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • iTunes
  • YouTube

Donate to FairMormon

We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.

Donate Now

Donate to us by shopping at Amazon at no extra cost to you. Learn how →

Site Footer

Copyright © 1997-2019 by The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No portion of this site may be reproduced without the express written consent of The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc.

Any opinions expressed, implied, or included in or with the goods and services offered by FairMormon are solely those of FairMormon and not those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) Logo

FairMormon™ is controlled and operated by the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR)